Sharing his sons’ legacy: Matthew Doyle speaks for blood cancer awareness

With roots in Lightning Ridge and Brewarrina, Matthew Doyle is keen to share awareness of leukaemia and its symptoms, a disease that tragically took the life of his twin sons. Photo TWH

September is Blood Cancer Awareness Month, and for Muruwari man Matthew Doyle, the campaign is deeply personal.

A musician, composer, dancer, choreographer, cultural consultant and educator, Mr Doyle is also an ambassador for the Leukaemia Foundation in a role that honours the memory of his twin sons, Shawn and Jeremy, who both lost their lives to blood cancer before their third birthdays.

“I was born and raised in Sydney, but my family is from Brewarrina and Lightning Ridge,” Doyle explained.

“In 1995 our twin boys were born in Sydney. At about eight months old, one of them, Shawn, was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukaemia. We’d never even heard of it before. We didn’t know there were different types of leukaemia or that it was blood cancer. Our world was rocked.”

For the next two years, Doyle and his wife lived between hospital wards and home, learning the complexities of treatment protocols, bone marrow transplants, and the brutal side effects of chemotherapy. Six months after Shawn’s diagnosis, his twin Jeremy also showed symptoms and was diagnosed with lymphoblastic leukaemia. […]

Read more local news in the printed edition of The Western Herald.

To subscribe call (02) 6872 2333 today and receive The Western Herald in your letterbox next week!